India is set to officially launch the National Digital Health Mission next week, 27 September, according to the Press Trust of India.

WHY IT MATTERS

Intended to create the foundation necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country, the NDHM, now known as the Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission (PM-DHM), was first piloted last year in August across six union territories. It seeks to bridge the existing gap among different stakeholders in India's healthcare ecosystem through digital highways.

The National Health Authority (NHA) is the government body tasked to implement the programme based on the guiding principles laid out in the National Digital Health Blueprint.

The digital systems that are being built as part of the PD-DHM ecosystem are the digital health ID, a registry of doctors called Digi-doctor, health facility registry, personal health record and electronic health record. 

So far, the first three platforms – health ID and records of doctors and health facilities – are now operational, the news report noted.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Last month, the NHA received public comments on its proposed Unified Health Interface project which is part of the NDHM. The project intends to create an open, interoperable platform connecting digital health solutions. It will be used by patients and providers to discover, book, pay and fulfil various digital health services, such as teleconsultations, across applications.